There are no more illusions. The Arabs are back to their oldest traditions, resuming their tribal invasions. Nothing has worked during half a century of experiments – not nationalism or the left, not the Nasserite dream or the adventures of unity, not moderate Islam, the passing revolutions, or the spring, which ended before it bloomed. Arabism is back to pulling swords and knives from their sheaths. The Arabs are back to chopping off heads, grabbing slaves and the spoils of war.
Between failed states – some that are powerless and others that are afraid – no state in the east deserves the name anymore. Central states have disintegrated. The entirety of social values have slipped into the hellfire of sectarian hatred and strife. The differences between kingdoms, emirates, and republics have disappeared. Disparities in economic models have been erased. The people were stricken with an infection of revolutions without aim. Revolutions and regimes – or what remains of them – began seeking foreign help to strengthen a revolution or save a regime.